Count Down Beloved
by Casting Moonlight
Summary: Prowler, baby, Ah have ta do this. Please... The back up plan. Ah know ya have it, rigged an ready ta go off in astro-seconds. Just give me the location and the bomb. Please.


**Title:** Count Down Beloved  
**Pairing/Characters: **Jazz/Prowl; mention of Shockwave, Mirage, and Autobot Officers.  
**Verse: **G1  
**Words: **2238  
**Warnings: **Character Death  
**Summary: **Prowler, baby, Ah have ta do this. Please... The back up plan. Ah know ya have it, rigged an ready ta go off in astro-seconds. Just give me the location and the bomb. Please.  
**Disclaimer:** Do not own Transformers.  
**Notes: **None

Enjoy!

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How had it gone so wrong, so fast?

Jazz ran down the hallway with Prowl hot on his heels. He had the tactician's hand gripped tight in his, leading him blindly though the seemingly endless hallway. Their systems were overheating, intakes harsh and strained, and they could still hear the Decepticons running after them. He glanced at Prowl's determined face and looked ahead again.

The mission was to destroy a new base on the outskirts of Polyhex. It was believed to be a strategic transfer stop for Shockwave and thus there was a quick rush to reduce it to ruble as soon as possible. It would have been an simple in and out mission for Jazz; he had of course sabotaged bases that had been hunkered down and extensively upgraded throughout their existence which he considered more dangerous than this new recently constructed base could ever hope to be.

It didn't stop Prowl from standing up after his bold declaration and bringing up the holo-map that was programmed in the center of the round table. After careful deductions just a few joors prior to the meeting Prowl had created a hologram based off of the reports from Mirage and also a collective report from the Autobots from nearby bases in the area that had managed to get a glimpse of it. It was in the basic shape of a 'H' and since the blue-prints of the base was not entirely clear which building would be more vulnerable to sabotage, Prowl proposed they overload the central computer system.

Where the command center was in this base was unknown but the most logical position would be the right branch of the base. Shockwave had been seen going in and out of that branch alone so it remained the best choice from each of the officers' point of view.

Listening to his lover's concerns and the information that he had deduced after studying the data that Mirage had delivered to him, Jazz asked what Prowl's solution was for overloading the central computer if it was programmed by Shockwave. It would take him precious time to skip past any of the defenses that the cyclops had put into place without worrying about a virus streaming through an uplink and frying his processor. Nonetheless this base needed to go and soon.

Prowl had looked at him blankly as he replied without hesitation, "I will be accompanying you. If we are able to tackle the central computer's defenses at the same time, we should be able to complete our objective. If we can not successfully take the information and destroy it... I always have a back up plan."

A few of the Officers chuckled at his blatant admission and but Jazz saw the uneasy twitch of his lover's doorwings betraying his worry only to Jazz and he agreed with a silent, heavy weight on his spark.

Entering had been easy. In fact sneaking in through one of the doors of the right branch was so easy that Jazz's honed instincts had begun blaring silent alarms in his processor. He hadn't told Prowl but he had a feeling that Prowl could feel the _wrongness_. Jazz tried to chalk it up to the luck that the security systems were still being installed and there were no security cameras in the long, perfect, shiny hallways they had crept quietly down.

Once inside Jazz kept guard after hacking efficiently into what appeared to be a computer console in a room with no obvious purpose yet and Prowl plugged in to take an initial scan of the layout. With a complete schematic of the base, they found that each branch was completely the same. Also, at each end of the branches was a large circular room and Prowl said he had located the central computer before taking off with all of his systems running as quiet as his name.

Fortune, one that had been grating so irritatingly on his processor, then decided to show it's true colors and just as they reached just a few yards beyond the middle a patrol spotted them and fired upon them with no hesitation. Jazz growled as laser fire flew over his head and he yanked on Prowl's arm, dragging his lover faster despite how hard he could hear the formally silent systems running.

Suddenly he was jerked backwards and he spun sharply with the motion just in time to see Prowl fall with a sharp scream of pain as well as a loud clank just behind Prowl. A span of two astro-seconds seemed like an eternity as he watched with distant horror as plasma seeped from the smoldering knee-joint of Prowl's right leg; the rest of the limb lay a few feet away with a trail of bright fluid to mark it's stream.

Not daring to pause for another breem he picked up his lover, wincing when Prowl replied to the motion with a strangled scream, and sidestepped into a room and palmed the locks, closing off the Decepticons from them for as long as the locks would hold. He guessed they had breems before the Decepticons either broke, hacked, or shot their ways into the room. Leaning Prowl against the wall and refusing to allow his lover to slide down with a pained grimace, Jazz knelt down and pulled out a standard medical kit.

"Slag." He hissed digging through it. Every drip of precious plasma made his wires coil up tighter and tighter. Another snarled curse and he threw the kit on the ground, grabbing his helm out of lack of things to throw. He had nothing to stop the bleeding or at least cover the wound. Soldering the entire wound was not a possibility. The risk of infection from the soldering, or worse if it ignited one of the sparking wires... Jazz shuddered to think about the results.

Hearing his lover's cooling fans kicking on made him look up at Prowl and he saw the indigo optics hidden behind tight shutters as he breathed in with ghosting whimpers. Glancing around desperately, he spotted long layers of sheet metal. Visor brightening he dug through the kit and grabbed a few pieces of equipment. Cutting as neat of a circle as he could with his quick movements, he tugged the crude shape out of the sheet and hurried back to Prowl who had begun to slide down despite himself.

Grabbing a welder, he knelt down and help to shift Prowl back upwards again. Kissing the area just above the knee-joint gently, he pushed the slate of metal against the wound and immediately began welding, his audios ringing from the high screams that came from Prowl. Plasma poured in rivets from the unsoldered edges, coating his hands in bright, slippery pink. Jazz struggled to keep a firm grip and hurry at the same time when Prowl actually began slamming one of his hands on the wall, biting into his knuckles to silence his screams, and his remaining knee almost buckling from pain.

"Ah know, baby, shh. Ah'm almost done." He kept up his encouraging whispers as he finally -**finally**- welded the wide circle patch onto Prowl's leg. Moving back up, Jazz kissed Prowl, swallowing the whimpers of pain that had been muffled.

As he brushed his lips soothingly against Prowl's chevron, he offlined his visor and dared not let his servos shake. He had calculated the chances the moment he saw the missing limb on his lover.

They both weren't getting out of this base alive.

Jazz cupped Prowl's frightened and agonized face in his hands and leaned his forehead against Prowl's chevron. He looked into the fogged optic lenses, tears gathered in the corners. Caressing the smooth white cheek plates with his thumb, Jazz kissed him softly.

Pulling away, just a milli-inch, he whispered, staring deeply into those beautiful indigo optics, "Please. Please baby. Give meh the location of ta central computer room."

That quick processor sorted through his plea and Jazz saw it on Prowl's face as agony of pain shifted into agony of love, his optics widening as he pieced together what Jazz wanted.

"No. No Jazz, no." Prowl whispered back with a desperate rasp and Jazz felt the tactician's hands running over his chassis frantically. He caught them, pressing them over the area of his spark chamber, letting his rapid sparkpulses be felt by his lover.

"Prowler, baby, Ah have ta do this. Please... The back up plan. Ah know ya have it, rigged an ready ta go off in astro-seconds. Just give me the location and the bomb. Please." He pleaded unabashedly, gently touching the panels that covered Prowl's subspace pocket on his arms.

Prowl was immobilized, he wouldn't be able to walk, let alone run. If the room he was after was in the branch that they were currently in Jazz could secure it with the standard bulkheads that always installed for the central computer room then the explosion would only take out the surrounding rooms. If it was in the other branch of the base then he would take out the whole other half for his Prowler.

Prowl would be safe either way.

Jazz gasped as he was grabbed and shoved against the wall and then frantic lips covered his own. Jazz returned the kiss with all the passion and love he could muster, conveying everything he felt in the single touch. In response Prowl pressed against him and Jazz groaned as he felt Prowl's tapered fingers digging into his hip seams. He caressed the smaller's doorwings and felt his spark burn at the moan produced from the shuddering frame. All the while their lips stayed glued together in their last moments with one another.

Pulling away Jazz opened his mouth to plead once more when Prowl whispered so softly that if Jazz had not had such advanced audial modifications than he would have missed it. "It's in the left branch of the base. The circular room at the very end of the hall." Prowl's fingers skimming his wrist dataport prompted it open and he felt Prowl plug in and a download sequence began immediately. In his other hand, a deceivingly small device was pressed into his palm. Prowl's back-up plan, the bomb.

Instantly Jazz logged the information and pinged the location on the schematic downloaded from Prowl. Breaking the connection, he grasped Prowl's face one last time. He studied the features of his beloved, indigo light reflecting off misted glass and whispered, "Ah love ya."

"I... I love you._ Jazz_." Prowl whimpered and Jazz reveled in the caress on his face, swooping down on the trembling lips, _once last time_, before pulling away and sprinting towards the exit. His spark lurched in pain as he heard Prowl collapse bodily to the ground and cry out his name.

He dared not turn around and programmed the room to lock itself from the outside. Prowl could summon an SOS as soon as the left branch went up, with him inside of it. 'Ah_ love ya baby. Forever_.' He thought fiercely and clutched the bomb in his hand gingerly.

Blasting his way with no care to the injuries he sustained, he broke through the guards and crossed the bridge to the left branch. He kept running, ignoring the blurred face-plates and purple insignias flashing in his vision along the way. The laser fire biting at him was not felt as he sprinted with all the energy he possessed. All he could think of was getting to the room and ensuring Prowl's survival. He stared at the door down the hallway and pouring all his strength into his leg hydraulics he ran at the door and palmed it open.

His visor brightened as the doors slid away and his plasma froze in his systems.

It was a _storage closet_.

Lifting his hand he stared at the bomb, the _decoy bomb_, in his palm and realization crashed through him.

"Prowl. Oh Primus!" He turned on his heel and took five steps before the world thundered around him, audios ringing from the explosion that didn't come from the bomb in his hand. The wall to his right caved in and the pounds of rock fragments smashed into his side, effectively sending his systems into an inevitable course to stasis, automatically sending an SOS.

He gasped in pain and lifted his head, ignoring the agony that came from his neck cables. He took in the smoldering branch across the way, the wall completely caved in and giving him a horribly perfect view of the glowing hot embers of the right branch of the base.

"Prowl." He whispered before his systems plunged him into stasis entirely and his helm fell back with a loud cracking noise on the broken metal floor beneath him.

"_Prowl_..."

"_-if not... I always have a back up plan._"

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